Ethics in Business and Patient Care

Quality and kindness form the basis for the decisions we make in both medicine and business. Some decisions are obvious, some routine, some automatic. Others are more complex and may put our values to the test.

Every Dignity Health hospital has an ethics committee whose role is to educate, develop policy and support clinical decision making. These committees offer multi-disciplinary ethics consultation to help patients, families, surrogates, and health care providers address uncertainty or conflict. During a consultation, the committee considers the medical facts and patient preferences, as well as the views of family, friends, and caregivers. Social, spiritual, legal, and administrative factors are carefully weighed.

We make it our mission to consistently respect the values of our patients and to promote basic values of fairness, justice, and integrity. Above all, we vow to do no harm.

Statement of Common Values

The Dignity Health Statement of Common Values describes the guiding values for our whole organization—hospitals, care centers, business offices, and partnerships. Our Catholic hospitals have an additional responsibility to carry out the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services.

Ethics in Business Practices

For making ethical business decisions, we use clearly-defined processes in the application of our values, our mission, and our multiple responsibilities. This careful attention to ethics, in turn, supports the quality of our patient care by providing the right mechanisms for investigating any concerns employees or patients may have and for identifying potential weaknesses in internal systems and management. Learn more about how our values-based decision making process is put to use.

Conversations with Carol Bayley, PhD

There are many complicated ethical issues in medicine, from conducting research to administering last-resort measures. In her series of articles, Dignity Health's vice president for ethics and justice education Carol Bayley, PhD shares her thoughts on the various problems with which we must sometimes grapple.

Our Vision

We are a vibrant, national health care system known for service, chosen for clinical excellence, standing in partnership with patients, employees, and physicians to improve the health of all communities served.

Who We Are

Dignity Health comprises more than 60,000 highly skilled caregivers and staff, all devoted to delivering the highest quality of care with kindness and respect. Our reach is expanding. Yet our values remain grounded in faith and dignity.